Dragon of Wrath

Chapter 5: Resolve

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN TAIZAI SADLY!

"Ban, why don't you come and eat?" King asked me. "Nahhh," I said. "I'm good." Fairies primarily ate fruit and a man like me needed his meat, damn it. King sighed. "Oh, fine." Then he floated inside. The fairies were still cold to him, but at least they weren't throwing things anymore. They'd get used to him.

Getting up, I jumped from the tree, landing neatly on the ground and taking off through the forest. I could hear the fairies whispering as I passed them. But I didn't stop until I reached the Sacred Fairy Tree. I slowed down and searched the roots until I found her.

Elaine's body laid there, among the roots and flowers. She looked like she was just asleep and would wake at any second. I sat down on a particularly large tree root, sighing. I had lied to myself earlier. I had no problems with just eating fruit; I'd done it plenty of times before when I came to check on the Forest. My real problem was the guilt choking me, making it impossible for me to eat. Besides, it wasn't like I'd died without food.

Now that my head was screwed on right and I was thinking clearly, I couldn't believe what I had almost done. I had almost killed the Cap'n, my best friend, my brother, because a freaking horn told me so. Master was right, it was incredibly stupid. And Elaine wouldn't be happy being revived that way. Cause I wouldn't be happy, knowing that I had betrayed the only man that accepted me with no questions asked. I thought back to all the moments that I had with Elaine, quickly and irrevocably falling for her. And all the moments after I had lost her, when the Cap'n made this hell bearable.
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"A drop on your tongue will add ten years to your life, a swallow a hundred more! Drink it all and you'll live forever!" I sang as I climbed up the giant tree. Finally, reaching the top, I swung my bag onto the trunk and pulled myself the rest of the way up. "Hah! So Zhivago was riiight, there is a treasure in the top of this tree!" In the middle of a....pink?...pond was a goblet, overflowing with whatever the water was. "The Fountain of Youth, a sacred treasure guarded by a holy woman." I looked around. "Weeell, I don't see a holy woman, but oh well."

I started forward, but felt something staring at me. I turned around and....it was a little girl in a white dress. "Oh, are you looost?" I asked. She shook her head. And then began to float up into the freaking air. "No," she said in a very clear voice, "I'm here guarding the spring. From bandits like you." Then, she lifted her arm and suddenly I felt myself being buffeted by massive winds. "What thaaa?!" I began to be picked up. "Ah, SHIIIIITTTT!!!!" I screamed as I fell off the end, falling to the ground nearly 3,000 feet below.
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I had to laugh, remembering how we met. The first two days or so, we drove each other nuts. Of course, the Cap'n and I were best buddies nearly instantly.
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"Man, this place is built like a fortress." I could hear someone walking towards my cell. Another execution probably. What a pain. "Of course!" One of the knights on duty said. "He's the criminal who burnt down the Fairy King's Forest twenty years ago."

"Isn't he still alive after being executed 33 times?" The man asked again. Was it just me or did he sound really....young? "Y-yeah! We've tried everything, from beheading to fire. Th-That man isn't human!" I snorted. I took that as a complement. The only decent people I had ever met weren't human. "Huh," the man said. "What a coincidence." What? I thought just as the guard echoed my question.

"Just open it," he said. I hear the locks turn and the door scrap open. I'm blinded for a second, since I'd been kept in the cell all of these twenty years, excluding the executions of course. Then, the door is closed and I open my eyes to see.... "A kid?" I muttered.